Title: Assumptions
Author: lyralupin
Format & Word Count: Ficlet
Rating: PG
Summary: Tonks and Remus meet at a bar. Sexual assumptions are made on both parts.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
Winston Churchill
"Are these beer nuts taken?" Tonks asked jovially, but as soon as she said it, she felt ridiculous.
She was too young to be hanging out at the bar at The Hangman's Pub. He didn't know her age, but from the blush of her cheeks and the sparkle of her dark eyes, he knew she was too young to remember the War. The pink haired witch sparkled with the awkward beauty of a girl too old to be a teenager, too young to be a woman. Her short skirt and wide-eyed innocence were a dangerous combination, especially in this neighborhood.
"No. They're all yours." Remus Lupin's gray eyes slipped from her face, back to his beer.
"Wotcher!" She took the bowl and started nipping down the pretzels with an eager haste.
Remus lit a fag.
"So, umm... Are you from around here?"
The man to whom she spoke couldn't be that much older than herself. Tonks knew she had no business talking to strange men, especially at bar in Little Hangleton, but there was something about him that seemed gentle. Perhaps it was the way he cradled his cigarette so elegantly between his fingers or the look of surprise in his eyes when she asked him for he beer nuts.
Or maybe, it was because she'd never really tried to pick up a man at a bar before. There was something about her first year in auror training that had sparked a new confidence in her.
He coughed on the smoke he inhaled and struggled to say, "Not really... Here for work."
Cough. Cough.
She laughed and taking a fag from his pack, she lit it with a magic flame, taking a long drag.
"You're not a smoker are you?"
Her dark eyes lingered on his face with a sexual intent.
"No." He stifled the cough. "But I'm trying to take it up."
Tonks took another drag and tilted the fag towards him. "Hope you don't mind?"
He waved it off.
"Yeah, I just started my fifth year to piss off my mom."
"Is it working?" He asked, casually spinning his coaster beneath his long finger tips as they spoke.
Tonks smiled as wide as a Cheshire cat. "Oh yeah!"
Remus smiled at her naiveté. Damn, she was a charming little git. Dropping his eyes to his beer, he shielded himself as he got up the courage to say, "I haven't seen you here before."
Perhaps she isn't too young, he thought to himself.
"Expect not. First time here. I'm waiting on a friend... A girlfriend."
Remus raised his brow as he punctuated his, "Oh!"
In the next a moment a squealing girl in a short skirt with liberal amounts of rouge ran into the pub.
"Tonksie! There you are!"
The hugged tightly and kissed. "You're becoming a regular barfly!" The girl laughed and then turning to cast her eyes on Remus she snared, "Come on, let's get out of here."
As she was leaving, Tonks called back to man, "Thanks for the fag!" He nodded and cast his eyes back to his beer.
"Wotcher Kate! Could you have dragged me out of there any faster?" Tonks asked sarcastically. "He was kind of cute and I got a free smoke."
Kate made a puking motion by sticking her index finger in her mouth. "Beside that comment, Tonks, he's... Well every knows you can get it from him."
"Oh," Tonks responded, a bit confused. "Get what?"
"I heard mom say he's a contagious disease. If you live in Little Hangleton and you have something to hide, then my mom know it! Not sure what, but I heard her say something about saliva. " Then making a retching sound, "Something in his 'bodily fluids'."
"Really?" Tonks was intrigued and whispered, "What do you think he has?"
"Well, he's always at that scummy little pub so probably something he picked up from one of the 'serving girls'. You know the kind a mean." Tilting her head, a knowing look in her eye. "I've heard they serve more than just drink there."
"Yuck!" Tonks did a little shiver- dance. "Uck! Come on, let's get out of here!"
Remus took a large swig of his beer.
"Had a girlfriend! Ha, ha, ha! " The barman laughed.
Remus took another drag on his cigarette and coughed. Just his luck that they only woman who had ever hit at him at a bar was a lesbian. Sirius would have thought this was hilarious, if only he had someone to tell.
lj-cut
